The name
Woodhouse is first attested around the 1170s as
Wd(e)husa,
Wd(e)huse, and
Wudeusum. It is likely to derive from Old English
wudu 'wood' and
hūs 'houses'. Locals refer to it as Wudhus. It was described in 1853 as a "large and handsome village". The original Woodhouse area of Leeds extended in a wide horseshoe arc travelling north from Burley Street (where it is known as Little Woodhouse), up along Clarendon Road, including the current site of the University of Leeds, across
Woodhouse Moor (now a public park), then on towards its northernmost boundary, the steeply banked woodland of
Woodhouse Ridge part of the
Meanwood Valley Trail, and the
Forest of Leeds, where the area was known as Woodhouse Cliff to the west and Woodhouse Carr to the south-east.
Ordnance Survey maps for 1893 and 1921 mark an area to the west of Meanwood Road between Buslingthorpe Lane and Buslingthorpe Green as "Woodhouse Carr". During the
Second World War, the Institution Street (now Holborn Approach) area was accidentally bombed by the German
Luftwaffe during night-time
blackout air-raid unsuccessful attempts to destroy a nearby industrial target. Several buildings were hit and as a result three people at the bottom end of the street were killed. The Chemic Tavern is a
public house situated in the heart of Woodhouse. It was established in the 1840s and named after Johnson's Chemical Works. The factory was demolished in the 1890s but the pub remained. ==Architecture==